Council faces '£14m gap' in funding review

Bracknell Forest Council said the plans meant it would have to cut service budgets by 10%

A council says new government funding proposals would leave it with a "funding gap of at least £14m" by 2028-29.

Bracknell Forest Council in Berkshire said it was responding to the government's Fair Funding Review 2.0, which lays out how funding will be spread across local authorities.

It said, under the plans, and after council tax rises were taken into account, it would have to cut its service budgets by at least 10% over the next three years.

The government said the consultation "marked the next step in introducing a fairer funding system that targets money where it is most needed, in partnership with local government".

The council says, since 2021, it has seen a £20m increase in costs for children's social care, adult social care and general fund education services, including home-to-school transport.

It said a letter had been sent to the Minister for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon, signed by leaders of Bracknell Forest Council's Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green parties, saying the review does not "acknowledge the context that local authorities – particularly those with social care and education responsibilities – are currently operating in".

Finance councillor Kathryn Neil said: "We will be left to shoulder a large funding gap while struggling to pay for increasingly costly services."

Launching the consultation, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Mr McMahon previously said: "We know that the demand for, and cost of, services has increased significantly and that this has made the job for local authorities in recent years much harder.

"Our fiscal inheritance means that there will be tough choices on all sides to get us back on the path to recovery and it will take time."